


Holy Hell

by angelhums



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Drugs, F/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-11 04:12:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5613556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelhums/pseuds/angelhums
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Nathan decided to push back and fight back against Jefferson?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dear Lord

Arcadia Bay. This tiny town. Like a sealed petri dish, the viruses and germs are contained within. 

One germ goes by the name Nathan Prescott. The syllables are often accompanied by an eye roll, or said in a mocking tone, or grumbled as he passes by. 

Like moths are drawn to the same electrical light that causes their deaths, Kate Marsh is drawn to Nathan. 

She studies his Facebook page, smiling gently in spite of herself at every picture where he smiles genuinely. For some reason, she can tell. His dimples appear and his eyes crinkle. She counts the pictures where this is true. Only 4 out of 31. 

It's obvious something is wrong with Nathan. And Kate wants to know what. 

There's a Vortex Club party next week. Maybe she'll go.

Maybe she’ll wear her prettiest skirt, the one that's an inch higher than Blackwell dress code. She'll tuck a tiny Bible into the pocket, and coil up her cross necklace and put it there, too. She'll wear her hair down. She'll sneak red lipstick from Victoria’s room, and ask sweetly to borrow high heels from Courtney who will nod willingly after some coaxing. 

When she looks at herself in the mirror, she almost doesn't go. 

“Harlot,” she says quietly to herself. “Jezebel. How will anyone take you seriously now?” The party starts in 30 minutes, and Kate is considering smudging all this makeup off and heading to bed with a good book. 

Outside, she hears Victoria's door open and shut, a smattering of laughter and hip-hop music plays from someone's phone as they pass her door, heading towards the exit. 

“You never have fun,” she reasons with herself. “Your comfort zone can't be confined to this stupid school. It's just one night.” 

She leaves 10 minutes later than she intends to, because Max stops her in the hallway to ask about photography notes, and of course she has to help Max. 

“Thanks, Kate. And hey, I didn’t want to ask, but are you going to that Vortex Club party?” Max asks, rubbing her arm nervously. 

Kate can feel herself blushing. “Is it obvious? It's…”

“Not really your scene? That's okay. You deserve to let off some steam. If I were you, I would be so irritable all the time. Have a nice night, alright?”

Max’s light touch on her shoulder is gentle and warm. Kate smiles, and it fills her with the inner strength to leave the dormitory. 

On her way there, the borrowed stilettos sink into the wet grass. She hugs her purse tighter to herself. 

Samuel, sweeping the damp sidewalk, gives her a nod that carries nothing but support. Her chin lifts up a little higher. 

The smells and sounds of the party waft in through the curtain, once she enters the pool building. Stale beer, perfume, and chlorine. Laughter, music, and splashing.

While waiting in line to leave her coat with Stella, she looks at how the girls are dressed around her and purses her lips. Her shirt is a button-up, long sleeved, crisp, and all the way up to her chin. She rolls up the sleeves, up to her elbows, then pulls the skirt a little higher and unbuttons two buttons. 

It’ll be hot in there, she reasons to herself, handing her coat off to Stella, who smiles warmly. 

“Kate! What are you doing here? I thought you had homework!” her friend asks, leaning over the table to talk to her.

“Oh, I did it already. Is Alyssa here, too?” Kate asks, smiling hopefully. 

“No, Alyssa's in her room. Brooding. I was going to check up on her later. Wanna come? Sleepover!” 

Kate grins. “We’ll see. I’ll try to uh, touch base with you later, Stella!” she says, then walks carefully into the party, making sure not to trip over any cords. 

The party is loud, and the bass is pumping. Kate's ears hurt. She puts her fingers over them, then cracks open an energy drink from the table nearest her. It may be 10pm, she confirms with a quick glance of her watch, but fun is going to happen tonight, and she can't sleep through it. 

She tries dancing by herself, but it's mostly fruitless. She has no idea how to dance. 

10 minutes in, while she's pondering leaving, Courtney sneaks up on her and wraps an arm around her shoulders. 

“Katie baby! You need to loosen up! You should spend some time in the VIP room with me and Vicky! C'mon!” 

She clasps both of her hands and pulls her toward the curtains blocking off a 4th of the pool area before Kate can even protest. Taylor, sitting with the list of names, doesn’t even look up as they pass.

The back room is a whole other world. It's smoky. Smells like sweat. Ahead of her, Hayden smokes what can't be a cigarette while talking to a pretty blonde girl, who sways her hips toward him occasionally. His eyes are lidded.

Before she can even finish taking in the room, Victoria is throwing her arms around her and giggling. 

“Kate! I’ve been looking for you for hours!” Victoria's hips move with the beat, produced by the speakers that are several feet from their faces. Her dress is dark red, and clings to her body, emphasizing her slim frame. “There’s someone I want you to meet!” 

“Okay!” Kate agrees, Vic's excitement is infectious. She leads her over to a couch where Nathan Prescott sits by himself, drinking alone. Victoria practically shoves her onto the couch, giggling. 

“You two get to know each other! I’m going to go look for Mark. He wanted to talk to you, Kate!”

Kate glances at Nathan as Victoria spins away. It's weird seeing her not irritable. 

Nathan looks at her quietly, his right knee bouncing. Party-Nathan's shoulders are less tense than School-Nathan's. His face is shiny from sweat, and his cheeks are red. 

“Hi,” she says, turning to him. His eyes quickly go back up to her face, and Kate can't help but notice that he goes a few shades redder. “I'm Kate Marsh. I've um…. Seen you around!”

Nathan laughs lightly at her wording. 

“Yeah, I’ve seen you around, too. I’m Nathan.” He extends his hand, and they shake. It's a clumsy affair and Kate almost spills her energy drink over it. Once they're done, she sets it lightly on the coffee table.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Nathan asks her a question that she can't hear over the music. She doesn’t want to embarrass herself by asking him to repeat himself, so she just nods and smiles.

Nathan grunts his approval and starts rolling a joint. Within seconds, he has one rolled up and is holding it out to her with a lighter. Oh, mother of Mary. He must’ve asked her if she smoked weed! 

Slightly panicked, Kate accepts the joint and lighter and sits there with the items in her lap. She feels Nathan's eyes on her, and tries to remember what she knows from TV and movies she's seen. 

Joint between her lips. Like the cigarettes the older boys would smoke after Sunday Mass when she was in elementary school. Lighter. She recalls her father lighting their fire place, and pretends that the joint is kindling.

She sucks it in, then coughs sharply, exhaling it out. She hears a weird sound next to her and quickly turns her head to find the source. 

Nathan is giggling. It's a silly, dorky laugh, and it brings a smile to her face. She takes another drag, and this one goes down easier. She exhales the smoke, the taste in her mouth less than satisfactory. 

Nathan takes the joint from her and takes a couple drags off it, and it makes her dizzy to see his lips touching the lipstick marks where hers were moments before. 

When he's finished, she reaches out to take it, and he shakes his head. 

“Hold on, Kay. You're smoking it wrong. Come here.” 

She scoots closer to him, her heart speeding up. He puts his arm around her, holding the joint with three fingers as he puts it to her lips. She sucks in slowly and he moves the joint, using his free hand to keep her mouth closed with one finger. 

“Now hold your breath.” His voice is soft in her ear. His hands are smooth, yet slightly callused against her skin. 

She holds her breath for as long as she can, and then blows the smoke out around Nathan's fingers. Her eyes are watery. She's happy, and warm , and safe, and Nathan is so cute…

“Did you just call me cute?” Nathan asks, incredulously. His lips are practically touching her ear. She turns to look at him. 

“I guess I did,” she smiles, laughing before she realizes she is. It feels like an eternity that she is sitting there, studying Nathan's eyelashes in this smoky room. The colored lights reflect off his blue eyes, and his lips look dry, smudges of the lipstick off the joint present near the center of his mouth. 

She finds herself fascinated with his mouth. Kate leans forward slightly, her fingers sliding up Nathan's chest to lightly touch the lipstick smudges. Nathan's eyes are closed, and he is humming softly. 

She touches her own lips, then his again, and he kisses her fingers, making her laugh. 

She's hardly aware of how close they are, legs touching as she's practically in his lap, his arm holding her securely. 

“You're cute, too,” he admits, and she presses her face into his shoulder, so he won't see how she's grinning like an idiot. He can probably feel her smile through his shirt though, as his fingers start to move through her hair. He smells like cigarettes and cologne, his fingernails gently running over her scalp.

“Miss Marsh?” 

Kate pulls gently away from Nathan, squinting up at her photography teacher Mr. Jefferson. 

“Oh, hey, Mr. Jefferson,” she says, barely able to hold herself together. Her skirt is rumpled, riding up in the back from the way she's sitting. A bit of her pink bra is showing, due to her shirt being unbuttoned partially and her blonde hair is cascading messily down her shoulders. Her eyes are also, no doubt red as hell. “What is it that you wanted to ask me, sir?”

Nathan's grip on her is tight. The hand that was entangled in her hair is now stroking the bare skin of her left arm. Kate is having trouble processing the hard glares Mr. Jefferson and Nathan are sending each other. 

“I just wanted to say that your entry, for the Everyday Heroes contest? It was spectacular. You may even win, Miss Marsh. Good luck.” He leaves, as quickly as he had come. 

Kate collapses back against Nathan, who is rolling another joint, his hands shaking and his knee starting to bounce. She reaches out to steady his knee, stroking his thigh to do so. 

He smokes about half the joint before handing it off to her, coaxing her through the steps as he did previously. 

Once she tosses the roach that the joint has become, she's scooted even closer to Nathan, smiling peacefully. 

“Hey, Nate?”

“Yeah?” he asks, his fingers in her soft hair again. 

“I’m so hungry,” she smiles up at him, and he laughs again, gently pushing her off of him so he can stand up. 

“Where are we going?” she asks as he bids farewell to Victoria, who is smirking suggestively. 

“I have crackers and stuff in my dorm,” Nathan tells her, helping her up. They hold hands on the way back to the dorm, Kate not noticing the curious glances and Nate ignoring them. 

Back in Nathan’s dorm, Kate sits on the floor, eating Graham crackers and rubbing her eyes occasionally. 

“Why does everyone call you a prude, Marsh?” Nathan asks, sitting cross legged across from her. He has one headphone in as he listens to music she can't hear. 

“I’ve never had a boyfriend. And I don’t go to parties. And I never really dress like other girls do,” Kate says, her back to Nathan's couch. He sits between the bed and the door, humming softly in acknowledgement. 

“I don’t think you’re a prude, or frigid, or anything that they say,” Nathan informs her, scooting over to sit beside her. He hands her his spare earbud and she puts it in her ear. 

“Huh. Whale songs.”


	2. hail mary

Kate wakes up in Nate's bed, alone. There's a rumpled blanket on the couch, and a cup of cold coffee on the nightstand. 

She sips it, then nearly gags at the assault of sweetness on her tongue. Did Nathan pour a whole bag of sugar in here?

The coffee is so diluted by creamer that it's practically white. Taking miniscule drinks, she slides out of bed. Courtney's heels are by the door and her jacket is slung over his computer chair. 

Nate is neat with everyone's clothes except for his, it seems. His red jacket has been thrown on the floor, and there's a random sneaker on his desk. After scanning the room, Kate notices that the other shoe is absent.   
She finishes the coffee in minutes, sorting through Nathan’s collection of dark movies on his shelf. The Human Centipede. The Human Centipede 2. The Human Centipede 3. Cannibal Holocaust. A Serbian Film. Love Actually. The Notebook. V/H/S and V/H/S 2. And oddly, All Dogs Go to Heaven. 

The door opens and shuts quickly. Kate carefully replaces the animated movie and turns to Nathan with a sheepish smile. He doesn’t seem to care about her snooping, as he practically throws himself at the couch. 

“Hey,” he greets casually. The smell of cigarettes waft off him. 

“Hi.” Kate avoids eye contact, setting the cup next to the sneaker on the desk. Nathan rubs his eyes.

“I see you have All Dogs Go to Heaven,” she says, sitting down on the bed across from him. “I cry every time I watch it.”

“Didn’t you know? I’m a passionate masochist. That’s why I have it,” he jokes, running a hand through his hair. Kate finds her eyes lingering on his hair. Usually neatly styled, it now sits messy and unbrushed. 

“So where did you go?” she asks him, crossing her legs.   
“Oh, you know. Just checking up on my various investments. You know, it's almost time for your photography class.”

“Really?” she checks her phone, letting out a sigh. She is far from ready. Honestly, she'd love to sleep more, but she can imagine how angry her mother would get. 

“Maybe we should just skip,” Nate suggests, his knee starting to bounce. He tries to push his thigh down against the couch to slow the movement, but he just keeps shaking it. Kate tries not to stare. 

“I don’t know. My parents would find out and get mad…”  
“I can just tell Wells to waive it, so they don’t get the email,” he scoffs. “I’m not stupid. Come on. We can go chill at the beach or something. Please?” 

“I mean, we don't have any real tests today…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys. um, sorry this is so short, im probably going to be admitted to the psych ward today and i wanted to get something out here before you guys lost interest. i don't know when ill be updating but ill do it asap.   
> i love all of you!!


	3. hallowed be thy name

Nathan takes her to a tiny café a few blocks from the Two Whales Diner. 

The creaking sign outside reads “Bay-City Coffee.” Kate's never heard of it. 

At the counter, Nathan stammers his way through his order. A white chocolate mocha with whipped cream. 20 ounces, strongly caffeinated. And a bagel. Toasted.

The barista is curt with him, refusing eye contact. As he steps aside to let Kate order, she notices her expression soften. 

“What would you like today, honey?” she asks, leaning forward over the counter with a wry smile. 

Kate finds herself getting mad, but doesn’t know why.  
“16 ounce green tea, please.”

“Hot or cold?”

“Hot.”

“Is that all?”

Kate purses her lips at the menu. 

“Chocolate muffin.”

After Nathan pays the 10 bucks, they settle into a cramped booth. The fabric is cracked leather and the window beside her is fogged up. 

“This is pretty much the only place I go anymore. Starbucks is gross, honestly,” Nathan says, squinting out the window. He rubs the glass with his sleeve. It doesn’t really have an effect.

“I didn’t know we even had a Starbucks,” Kate smiles, resting her elbows on the table in front of her. “Hey, why was that barista such a…. rude person?” 

Nathan shrugs his shoulders.  
“I can’t really expect anything differently from the fine citizens of Arcadia Bay. They're sick of me, basically. I’m the 1%, personified to them.”

Huh. Kate was under the assumption that Nathan got five star treatment at every establishment in this town.  
Her first night here, her parents took her to a fancy restaurant on the outskirts of town to celebrate moving into her dorm.  
Coincidentally, the Prescotts were there also. The wait staff surrounded their table like goldfish getting their meal.

"Mr. Prescott, would you like some wine with your meal?! Mrs. Prescott, may I take your coat? Mr. Prescott, would you like me to take your coat? Mr. Prescott, Mr. Prescott!"

“But I like them a lot better than the people that suck up to my family. They expect handouts from me just for getting my order right or not spitting in my face like everyone else does.” Under the table, Nathan's knee is bouncing.

“That's awful,” Kate says, unsure of what answer he wants from her. 

“I mean, it's not the worst. But it pisses me off. I’m not… Bill Gates' son, right? But they act like I’m dangling tickets to a better life in front of them and that I’m a selfish prick for not letting go of them. I mean, my family gives to charities and all that, but I'm not the King of Giving. I’m just trying to live my life, fuck.”  
His shoulders are beginning to tremble. 

The waitress brings their stuff over, and Nathan grabs his mocha and squeezes the steaming cup of liquid. 

“They try to say I’m selfish. For not slipping them a hundred dollars every time I see them.” Kate notices that his eyes, a wavering blue, are watering.  
She reaches out, loosens one of his hands from the cup and laces her fingers with his. 

“Hey, it's okay. We can talk about something else. How did you and Victoria meet?” She can feel stares on the back of her head, and she tries to ignore it by taking a drink from her tea with her free hand.

“Um, 5 years ago. My mom was taking me to a ballet and so was her mom. In Portland. We met in the lobby at intermission, she said that she was sick of her parents and so was I. So after the show, we broke away from our parents and just started walking. We hid in a park and smoked while our parents blew up our phones and the cops looked for us.”

Kate can picture it. Both of them, in fancy clothes for the ballet, hiding in the bushes. Nathan grinning with a joint between his lips and Victoria lighting it for him.  
“Were your parents mad when they found you?”

“Vic’s parents took her phone for a week. My dad…” he shakes his head, trying to shake thoughts out of it. “I… got in trouble, too. Um, what made you want to come to Blackwell?”

“Um, I had a few drawings submitted to a local art show. I didn’t really think anything would happen but my art was put on display. So, I went, and a few weeks later I got an email. I was being offered a half scholarship to Blackwell. My parents had to take a chunk out of my college fund but it was worth it.”

Nathan smiles. Kate feels butterflies twist in her stomach.  
“That must've been really cool,” he says, squeezing her hand tighter. Kate laughs gently, shyly letting her eyes flit to the table instead of at his face. 

“Yeah, I mean, it was pretty nice to be able to come here and meet all these nice people. Like you.”

Nathan immediately pales.  
“I'm not nice,” he says carefully, focusing on peeling a sticker off the table. “I’m really not.”

“What?” Kate frowns, sitting up a little straighter. “Nate, of course you’re nice. You took me out for coffee. You helped me let loose last night. A mean person wouldn’t do that. “

Nate bites his lip, nodding begrudgingly. 

“Okay. We should probably be getting back to class.”  
On the way out, Nathan dumps his bagel in the trash and tosses his cup away.

Kate follows after him, nibbling at her muffin and wondering about Nathan's disfigured self-esteem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im finally stable enough to write! 
> 
> im dedicating this chapter to antidepressants
> 
> love you all


End file.
